When Idyllwild Cinema-Fest Chairman Phil Calderone added a new “Amateur” submission category, he did not expect it to yield one of this season’s major festival surprises — a probing and provocative feature with script values usually not found in amateur films.

Ken Dahleen’s Idyllwild Summer Concert Series arrives with heat at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 2. The diminutive Lisa Haley bows the first electric notes on her blue violin, lightning flashes, humidity intensifies and zydecosis spreads throughout the crowd. Zydecosis is a highly contagious condition prompted by Haley and her Zydekats’ foot-stompin’ joyous Cajun music. Symptoms…

By Jared Dillon 1842 is an important year in the world of beer. In the small Bohemian village of Plzen, Josef Groll would create the style of beer which we call Pilsner. Groll had been contracted by a group of unhappy brewers who did not like the style of beer they were drinking and producing….